Dove seeks women with beautiful hair for Femina

The brand is giving women an opportunity to appear on the cover of the New Year's issue of the magazine

Dove & #BANNER1 & # and Femina are out to convince women that anyone can have beautiful hair - beautiful enough to get them on the cover of Femina! The hair and skin care brand from Hindustan Unilever Ltd (HUL) is reaching out to women and giving them an opportunity to appear on the cover of the New Year's issue of Femina, a popular women's magazine.

The initiative is being carried out in 11 cities, including Hyderabad, Kolkata and Chandigarh, and 26 locations across India with the theme 'Beautiful Hair, On Any Face'. Stalls have been put up in several malls, where women can get their photos clicked and take away Dove shampoo samples. The shortlisted women will be given hair treatment with the Dove haircare range, professionally photographed and subsequently appear on the magazine cover.

The launch of the issue will be accompanied by an event in Mumbai, where the selected women will be introduced to the public. They will also have an opportunity to appear in the Femina 2009 calendar.

"The 'Beautiful Hair, On Any Face' initiative by Dove is a celebration of beautiful hair, which every woman can have if she wants. Dove brings alive this concept in association with Femina by asking women to be a part of Femina's Beautiful Hair issue," says a HUL spokesperson in an email interview.

The spokesperson did not share numbers, but says that the response has been "overwhelming" for the two weeks that the month long initiative has been under way.

Apart from the on-ground activation, Dove is also promoting the initiative on its website, www.dove.in. Women can upload their photographs on the website to enter the contest or to find out where the activity is happening in their city.

The contest has been conceptualised by MindShare Fulcrum. The agency claims that Dove.in has already received 1,700 registrations.

Dove will also use print and radio advertising to promote the initiative towards the end of the year.

The last campaign executed by Dove was with Yahoo! India in 2007, which included both on-ground and online activities (See case study). A page was created on Yahoo! Answers, which had questions and answers on hair care. Recorded answers from women across India were uploaded as videos on the website.